Fires, floods and droughts have become more common in recent times.
How are we affected by the extreme weather?
SMHI’s climate researcher Erik Kjellström answers five questions.
– That our weather and climate is changing, we have been aware of for quite some time. But the Earth’s climate and many types of weather change in frequency and intensity.
We are seeing more and more heat waves, extreme heat, torrential rain and drought. If you look globally, it is clear that there is an increasing trend of these in many parts of the world.
– It depends on how vulnerable and equipped society is to deal with it. But even in a well-equipped country such as Sweden, where we often have floods and torrential rain, we still have a lot to do.
In countries such as India, temperatures have been so high that the authorities have urged people to stay at home. In some places it can be harmful to be outdoors. In large parts of West Africa, India and Pakistan, which are also very populous, it will be even hotter and they will have a hard time.
– In high heat, for example, it can lead to direct health problems for older people and for children who may not drink enough. It is important to adapt societal functions to handle, for example, heat waves and floods.
Lack of water is a major problem for both humans and animals, but also in industry. Even in Sweden, we have suffered from water shortages in dry years and summers. Like the summer of 2018 which was extremely hot.
– What the future looks like depends entirely on how society succeeds in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. If the planet gets warmer, it will get worse. We will see an even warmer world in five years’ time. And it will be a big problem for future generations.
If you do not reduce the climate impact, it will continue to get warmer, these occasional weather events that occur quite sporadically will occur more often with higher intensity and the drought will get worse.
We also see in the scenarios for Sweden greater contrasts between wet and dry summers, that is definitely a problem.
– You can work with it in the form of infrastructure, or build houses that are better adapted to bring down the temperatures. In areas that are affected by floods, it may instead be a matter of creating fewer paved areas and creating more green areas. It is also important to manage water and the distribution of water, says Erik Kjellström, climate researcher at SMHI.